1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a pause function for a broadcast streaming service of a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a streaming service is a multimedia service that multimedia data is not stored in a storage unit of a terminal but reproduced (played) and then erased. The streamlining service is widely used in a fixed line communication network, and it can be favorably employed for a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone which does not have a sufficient storage space.
Techniques for implementing video streaming are divided into an image compression algorithm, a voice compression algorithm and a wireless/wired network protocol.
A video format used in the current wired/wireless system using a video compression technique includes an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) group format, such as MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, or the like, designated by the international ISO/IEC standards committee, and an H.26x group format such as H.261, H.263, H.264, of the like, designated by the international ITU-T standards committee.
In particular, in a wireless environment with a mobile communication terminal, the MPEG4 or the H.263 is gaining ground as applicable international standards, and the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 standards committees, the international wireless mobile communication standards organization, have adopted the MPEG4 format as the standard used for VOD (Video On Demand; user definition video viewing service) technology and the H.263 format as the standard user for video telephony (VT). According to the development of the compression techniques and the picture quality enhancement techniques, the demand for the H.264 format is increasing to the level of the MPEG-4 and the H.263 formats.
As examples of voice compression algorithms, a wired/wireless voice compression algorithm such as an MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), an MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) or an AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), a QCELP (Qualcomm™ Code Excited Linear Prediction), an EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Coder), and the like, which are suitable for the wireless environment are typically used, and demands for an AAC+ are increasing in line with the development of compression techniques and voice quality enhancement techniques.
The wired/wireless network protocols include a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which has a low transmission rate but high transmission reliability, and a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) which has a high transmission rate but low transmission reliability. Especially, in the wireless environment in which the network rate is low and a packet loss occurs frequently, an RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) and an RTCP (RTP Control Protocol) suitable as a real time protocol having advantages of the TCP and the UDP are being gradually adopted as standards, and in order to adaptively cope with real time services, an RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) and an SDP (Service Discovery Protocol) are also widely used.
To sum up, it can be said that in order to implement the video streaming service in the mobile communication terminal, MPEG4, H.263 and H.265 are commonly used as the image data formats, the AAC and the AAC+ are commonly used as the voice data formats, and the RTP, the RTCP, the RTSP and the SDP are commonly used as the transmission protocol formats.
FIG. 1 is a view showing the construction of a general system for providing a multimedia broadcasting streaming service to a mobile communication terminal. The general multimedia broadcasting streaming service system includes a video camera 60 for generating analog multimedia broadcasting data; a VOD encoder 50 for converting the generated analog multimedia broadcasting data into digital media data; a streaming server 40 for generating RTP/RTCP packets according to a wireless streaming transmission protocol by using the converted digital media data; a transmitter 30 for transmitting the RTP/RTCP packets; a base station 20 for transmitting the RTP/RTCP packets which have been transmitted through the transmitted 30 to a mobile communication terminal 10 through wireless communication; and the mobile communication terminal 10 for reproducing the received RTP/RTCP packets received through the base station 20 into a broadcasting streaming.
The general multimedia broadcasting streaming service system constructed as described above operates in the following manner.
When the mobile communication terminal 10 requests a certain broadcasting content, such as a sports broadcast, real time news (i.e., live news broadcasts), a talk show, or the like, the streaming server 40 transmits the requested broadcasting content to the mobile communication terminal 10.
When the mobile communication terminal 10 requests real time news, the analog multimedia broadcasting data of the news program is provided to the VOD encoder 50 by a video broadcast camera 60, and the VOD encoder 50 converts the analog multimedia broadcasting data into digital media data by using an MPEG encoding program or an H.265 encoding program. The converted digital media data is provided to the streaming server 40 and the streaming server 40 converts the digital media data into the RTP/RTCP packets and transmits them to the base station 20 through the transmitter 30. The base station 20 transmits the RTP/RTCP packet type digital media data to the mobile communication terminal 10, which then receives the digital media data and provides a real time news broadcast to the user through the streaming service.
While the mobile communication terminal is being provided with a streaming service based upon contents downloaded to the terminal or the VOD contents whose rate can be arbitrarily adjusted by the user, if a situation occurs where the streamlining service needs to be suspended for certain reasons of the user, such as when the user receives an incoming voice call and performs voice call communication through the mobile communication terminal, generally, the mobile communication terminal can briefly stop reproduction of the content for a certain amount of time by using a pause function.
However, while the mobile communication terminal is providing broadcasting content whose reproduction rate cannot be adjusted by the user, such as live broadcast contents or pre-recorded broadcast contents being provided as the streaming service to the user, if the broadcasting streaming service needs to be temporarily stopped by the user, the user cannot receive some portion of the broadcasting content during the time that the streaming service was paused.